It is clear that the establishment of ICANN has not quieted the debate over
administration and management of Internet names and addresses.
The issues have generated many hours of transcripts and testimony,
thousands of emails, hundreds of pages of public comments, resolutions,
policies, petitions and press releases. It's a daunting task to sort
through all this written material and ascertain whether events are moving
us in the direction intended or even desired.
I don't have an answer to that question, but as a proclaimed comparatrix, I
offer up another comparison table to put things in more comprehensible
form.
http://www.domainhandbook.com/comp-policy.html
provides a selective comparison of four key documents:
* White Paper
* Memorandum of Understanding between the US DOC and ICANN
* ICANN's Articles of Incorporation
* ICANN's Bylaws
I have chosen the following categories and inserted exact text that I feel
fits into this schema from the specific documents:
AUTHORITY
PRINCIPLES
PURPOSE
PROCESS
FUNDING
STRUCTURE
ISSUES
INTERIM BOARD | GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATION | TRADEMARKS
REGISTRANTS AND REGISTRARS | GENERIC TOP LEVEL DOMAINS |
TERM
CONTACTS
This is a work-in-progress and is intended as a reference tool. Please
write me at [EMAIL PROTECTED] if you have suggestions for ways to make
the comparison table more useful. The source documents are linked from the
page, but I can assure you that it is a time-consuming effort to switch
from one to the next to track specific text, for example that which relates
to trademarks or gTLDs.
There are other documents which have played a role in this transition.
Particularly interesting is a transmittal letter form ICANN to NTIA dated
November 6, 1998. It includes this noteworthy paragraph:
"First, a note about the formation of the ICANN Board. On October 25, 1998,
the nominees for the ICANN Board met in person and by telephone in New York.
During that meeting, we decided that the most prudent course, in view of the
untimely death of Dr. Jon Postel, was for the ICANN Board to be officially
constituted so that it could complete the mission that Dr. Postel and many
other persons and entities throughout the world have focused on so
diligently since the issuance of the White Paper last June. We did not wish
to be presumptuous, but we believed that this was a necessary step to enable
this process to continue effectively and expeditiously. Accordingly, the
nine At Large members of the Initial Board have now been duly elected, and I
have been elected its Interim Chairman."
I cite this paragraph because the "nomination" of the interim (a.k.a.
initial) board has been the subject of considerably contentious discussion.
Perhaps if these board members, who were NEVER "duly elected", had been
named through some sort of criteria-based public process, ICANN would not
find itself facing a crisis of confidence among the DNS community.
The only way ICANN will gain the trust it desparately needs is by opening
up its decision-making process to public view. But even as I continue to
press for this prudent course of action, it may be too late, IMHO, for this
awkward birth to gain a healthy standing among the DNS community.
Ellen Rony Co-author
The Domain Name Handbook ____ http://www.domainhandbook.com
======================== ^..^ )6 =============================
ISBN 0879305150 (oo) -^-- +1 (415) 435-5010
[EMAIL PROTECTED] W W Tiburon, CA
Dot com is the Pig Latin of the Information Age.
